The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
